Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Northumberland. Now when King Eirik heard this, he set off on a viking
cruise to the westward; and from the Orkneys took with him the Earls
Arnkel and Erlend, the sons of Earl Torfeinar. Then he sailed to the
Hebrides, where there were many vikings and troop-kings, who joined
their men to his. With all this force he steered to Ireland first,
where he took with him all the men he could, and then to Bretland, and
plundered; and sailed thereafter south to England, and marauded there
as elsewhere. The people fled before him wherever he appeared. As King
Eirik was a bold warrior, and had a great force, he trusted so much to
his people that he penetrated far inland in the country, following and
plundering the fugitives. King Jatmund had set a king, who was called
Olaf, to defend the land; and he gathered an innumerable mass of people,
with whom he marched against King Eirik. A dreadful battle ensued, in
which many Englishmen fell; but for one who fell came three in his place
out of the country behind, and when evening came on the loss of men
turned on the side of the Northmen, and many people fell. Towards the
end of the day, King Eirik and five kings with him fell. Three of them
were Guthorm and his two sons, Ivar and Harek: there fell, also, Sigurd
and Ragnvald; and with them Torfeinar's two sons, Arnkel and Erlend.
Besides these, there was a great slaughter of Northmen; and those who
escaped went to Northumberland, and brought the news to Gunhild and her
sons (A.D. 941).
5. GUNHILD AND HER SONS.
When Gunhild and her sons knew for certain that King Eirik had fallen,
after having plundered the land of the King of England, they thought
there was no peace to be expected for them; and they made themselves
ready to depart from Northumberland, with all the ships King Eirik had
left, and all the men who would go with them. They took also all the
loose property, and goods which they had gathered partly as taxes in
England, partly as booty on their expeditions. With their army they
first steered northward to Orkney, where Thorfin Hausakljufer was earl,
a son of Torfeinar, and took up their station there for a time. Eirik's
sons subdued these islands and Hjaltland, took scat for themselves, and
staid there all the winter; but went on viking cruises in summer to the
West, and plundered in Scotland and Ireland. About this Glum Geirason
sings:--
"The hero who knows well to ride
The sea-horse o'er the foamingtide,--
He who in boyhood wild rode o'er
The seaman's horse to Skanea's shore.
And showed the Danes his galley's bow,
Right nobly scours the ocean now.
On Scotland's coast he lights the brand
Of flaming war; with conquering hand
Drives many a Scottish warrior tall
To the bright seats in Odin's hall.
The fire-spark, by the fiend of war
Fanned to a flame, soon spreads afar.
Crowds trembling fly,--the southern foes
Fall thick beneath the hero's blows:
The hero's blade drips red with gore,
Staining the green sward on the shore."
6. BATTLE IN JUTLAND.
When King Eirik had left the country, King Hakon, Athelstan's
foster-son, subdued the whole of Norway. The first winter (A.D. 936)
he visited the western parts, and then went north, and settled in
Throndhjem. But as no peace could be reasonably looked for so long as
King Eirik with his forces could come to Norway from the West sea, he
set himself with his men-at-arms in the middle of the country,--in the
Fjord district, or in Sogn, or Hordaland, or Rogaland. Hakon placed
Sigurd earl of Hlader over the whole Throradhjem district, as he and his
father had before had it under Harald Harfager. When King Hakon heard
of his brother Eirik's death, and also that his sons had no footing in
England, he thought there was not much to fear from them, and he went
with his troops one summer eastward to Viken. At that time the Danes
plundered often in Viken, and wrought much evil there; but when they
heard that King Hakon was come with a great army, they got out of the
way, to Halland; and those who were nearest to King Hakon went out to
sea, and over to Jotland (Jutland). When the king heard of this, he
sailed after them with all his army. On arriving in Jutland he plundered
all round; and when the country people heard of it, they assembled in a
great body, and determined to defend their land, and fight. There was
a great battle; and King Hakon fought so boldly, that he went forward
before his banner without helmet or coat of mail. King Hakon won the
victory, and drove the fugitives far up the country. So says Guthorm
Sindre, in his song of Hakon:--
"Furrowing the deep-blue sea with oars,
The king pursues to Jutland's shores.
They met; and in the battle storm
Of clashing shields, full many a form
Of goodly warrior on the plain,
Full many a corpse by Hakon slain,
Glutted the ravens, who from far,
Scenting the banquet-feast of war,
Came in black flocks to Jutland's plains
To drink the blood-wine from the veins."
7. BATTLE IN EYRARSUND (THE SOUND).
Then Hakon steered southwards with his fleet to seek the vikings, and
so on to Sealand. He rowed with two cutters into the Eyrarsund, where he
found eleven viking ships, and instantly attacked them. It ended in his
gaining the victory, and clearing the viking ships of all their men. So
says Guthorm Sindre:--
"Hakon the Brave, whose skill all know
To bend in battle storm the bow,
Rushed o'er the waves to Sealand's tongue,
His two war-ships with gilt shields hung,
And cleared the decks with his blue sword
That rules the fate of war, on board
Eleven ships of the Vindland men.--
Famous is Hakon's name since then."
8. KING HAKON'S EXPEDITION TO DENMARK.
Thereafter King Hakon carried war far and wide in Sealand; plundering
some, slaying others, taking some prisoners of war, taking ransom from
others, and all without opposition. Then Hakon proceeded along the
coast of Skane, pillaging everywhere, levying taxes and ransome from the
country, and killing all vikings, both Danish and Vindish. He then went
eastwards to the district of Gautland, marauded there, and took great
ransom from the country. So says Guthorm Sindre:--
"Hakon, who midst the battle shock
Stands like a firmly-rooted oak,
Subdued all Sealand with the sword:
From Vindland vikings the sea-bord
Of Scania swept; and, with the shield
Of Odin clad, made Gautland yield
A ransom of the ruddy gold,
Which Hakon to his war-men bold
Gave with free hand, who in his feud
Against the arrow-storm had stood."
King Hakon returned back in autumn with his army and an immense booty;
and remained all the winter (A.D. 946) in Viken to defend it against the
Danes and Gautlanders, if they should attack it.
9. OF KING TRYGVE.
In the same winter King Trygve Olafson returned from a viking cruise in
the West sea, having before ravaged in Ireland and Scotland. In spring
(A.D. 946) King Hakon went north, and set his brother's son, King
Trygve, over Viken to defend that country against enemies. He gave him
also in property all that he could reconquer of the country in Denmark,
which the summer before King Hakon had subjected to payment of scat to
him. So says Guthorm:--
"King Hakon, whose sharp sword dyes red
The bright steel cap on many a head,
Has set a warrior brave and stout
The foreign foeman to keep out,--
To keep that green land safe from war
Which black Night bore to dwarf Annar (1).
For many a carle whose trade's to wield
The battle-axe, and swing the shield,
On the swan's ocean-skates has come,
In white-winged ships, across the foam,--
Across the sea, from far Ireland,
To war against the Norseman's land."
ENDNOTES: (1) The dwarf Annar was the husband of Night, and Earth was
their daughter.--L.
10. OF GUNHILD S SONS.
King Harald Gormson ruled over Denmark at that time. He took it much
amiss that King Hakon had made war in his dominions, and the report went
that he would take revenge; but this did not take place so soon. When
Gunhild and her sons heard there was enmity between Denmark and Norway,
they began to turn their course from the West. They married King Eirik's
daughter, Ragnhild, to Arnfin, a son of Thorfin Hausakljufer; and as
soon as Eirik's sons went away, Thorfin took the earldom again over
the Orkney Islands. Gamle Eirikson was somewhat older than the other
brothers, but still he was not a grown man. When Gunhild and her sons
came from the westward to Denmark, they were well received by King
Harald. He gave them great fiefs in his kingdom, so that they could
maintain themselves and their men very well. He also took Harald
Eirikson to be his foster-son, set him on his knee, and thereafter he
was brought up at the Danish king's court. Some of Eirik's sons went
out on viking expeditions as soon as they were old enough, and gathered
property, ravaging all around in the East sea. They grew up quickly to
be handsome men, and far beyond their years in strength and perfection.
Glum Geirason tells of one of them in the Grafeld song:--
"I've heard that, on the Eastland coast,
Great victories were won and lost.
The king, whose hand is ever graced
With gift to skald, his banner placed
On, and still on; while, midst the play
Of swords, sung sharp his good sword's sway
As strong in arm as free of gold,
He thinn'd the ranks of warriors bold."
Then Eirik's sons turned northwards with their troops to Viken and
marauded there; but King Trygve kept troops on foot with which he met
them, and they had many a battle, in which the victory was sometimes on
one side, and sometimes on the other. Sometimes Eirik's sons plundered
in Viken, and sometimes Trygve in Sealand and Halland.
11. KING HAKON AS A LAW-GIVER.
As long as Hakon was king in Norway, there was good peace between the
bondes and merchants; so that none did harm either to the life or goods
of the other. Good seasons also there were, both by sea and land. King
Hakon was of a remarkably cheerful disposition, clever in words, and
very condescending. He was a man of great understanding also, and
bestowed attention on law-giving. He gave out the Gula-thing's laws on
the advice of Thorleif Spake (the Wise); also the Frosta-thing's laws
on the advice of Earl Sigurd, and of other Throndhjem men of wisdom.
Eidsiva-thing laws were first established in the country by Halfdan the
Black, as has before been written.
12. THE BIRTH OF EARL HAKON THE GREAT.
King Hakon kept Yule at Throndhjem, and Earl Sigurd had made a feast
for him at Hlader. The night of the first day of Yule the earl's wife,
Bergljot, was brought to bed of a boy-child, which afterwards King
Hakon poured water over, and gave him his own name. The boy grew up, and
became in his day a mighty and able man, and was earl after his father,
who was King Hakon's dearest friend.
13. OF EYSTEIN THE BAD.
Eystein, a king of the Uplands, whom some called the Great, and some the
Bad, once on a time made war in Throndhjem, and subdued Eyna district
and Sparbyggia district, and set his own son Onund over them; but the
Throndhjem people killed him. Then King Eystein made another inroad into
Throndhjem, and ravaged the land far and wide, and subdued it. He then
offered the people either his slave, who was called Thorer Faxe, or his
dog, whose name was Saur, to be their king. They preferred the dog,
as they thought they would sooner get rid of him. Now the dog was, by
witchcraft, gifted with three men's wisdom; and when he barked, he spoke